BMS lambasts Vajpayee and his men

Speaking at the inaugural session, Thengadi lamented that whereas Vajpayee could have assumed leadership of all the developing countries, he has chosen to become a petty politician by acting upon advice from “the wrong people.” “He is surrounded by selfish advisors who’re motivated by vested interests in the same way as Jawaharlal Nehru was surrounded by people like V K Krishna Menon,” said Thengadi. He said many of the top bureaucrats advising the PM on crucial issues are from the past regimes and have their own agendas.

Thengadi praised the Vajpayee administration for the steps taken to protect national security. But when it comes to economic security, the government appears to have completely surrendered itself, he said.

He spoke about the initiative taken by Malaysia’s Mahatir Mohammed in the Kuala Lumpur G-15 meeting. A document called Challenges to the South,’ was the outcome of collective thinking of south-east Asian experts led by Manmohan Singh.

However, Singh appeared to be suffering from amnesia when he became finance minister and all his actions were contradictory to what he’d written in the report, Thengadi noted.

Mahatir Mohammed had appealed to India to take over leadership of the developing countries against the arm-twisting tactics of the developed West. India declined to play this role and Vajpayee gave up the chance to become a world leader, he said.

The draft of a resolution to be discussed during the conference reads, “This conference appeals to all political parties to desist from engaging in senseless power-thirsty politics, assume statesmanship and realise the real danger of losing political, economic and cultural sovereignty one by one.”

BMS national president Ramanbhai Shah lamented, “It’s a misfortune that despite the inclusion of Swadeshi in the national agenda and despite having opposed the idea when the Gujral government was in power, the BJP-led government brought in the Parliament a Bill permitting 40 per cent foreign capital in the insurance sector.”

He also criticised the total opening up of the tobacco and the liquor industry to foreign capital and the refusal of the government to lift the compulsion of using iodised salt. “The economic policy designed by the government at the advise of bureaucrats and economists sold out to foreign powers could encourage only multinationals,” he said.

The BMS leaders expressed satisfaction over the agitation programmes mounted by them and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch against the economic policies of the Vajpayee government.